HANOI (AFP) – Vietnam’s Parliament approved yesterday the resignation of President Vo Van Thuong, the latest high-profile leader to fall as the communist country is roiled by a sweeping graft purge and political feuding.
The ruling Communist Party announced on Wednesday that Thuong had quit after barely a year in the job, saying he was guilty of unspecified “violations and shortcomings”.
The 53-year-old’s departure, following days of rumours he was on his way out, comes as Vietnam undergoes major – and uncharacteristic – political upheaval.
The National Assembly voted to dismiss Thuong in a closed session at an extraordinary meeting, the state-run Tuoi Tre news website reported.
Vietnam has long prized stability and careful management of political change, but this has been upended by a wide-ranging crackdown on corruption, believed to be orchestrated by party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong – seen as the most powerful figure in the country.
The purge saw Thuong’s predecessor, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, forced to resign suddenly last January.
A handful of the country’s top business leaders have been put on trial in huge fraud and corruption cases, with one facing a possible death sentence in a USD12.5 billion bond scam case.
The party’s politburo, its key decision-making body, has now lost four of its 18 members since 2021 – two presidents, a deputy prime minister and a former trade minister.
Before Phuc’s resignation last year, only one other Communist Party president had ever stepped down, and that was for health reasons.
Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan will serve as acting president, state media reported, until the National Assembly chooses a full-time replacement.
Linh Nguyen, a Vietnam analyst at global risk consultancy Control Risks, said the upheaval was a “PR disaster” that threatened the country’s reputation for stability.
Last week, as speculation about Thuong’s future built, the Dutch royal family said Vietnam had cancelled a planned state visit this week by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima “due to internal circumstances”.
The turmoil comes as Vietnam seeks foreign investment, particularly from the United States (US), to develop its economy away from low-value manufacturing and towards high-tech products such as semiconductors.
US President Joe Biden’s administration wants to massively expand business investment in Vietnam to help it develop a high-tech sector.